Vasseur after lost sprint: 'Red Bull is still ahead'

Charles Leclerc finished second in the first sprint of the season, taking more points than he had scored in the past three races. Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur argues that Ferrari has made considerable progress since Bahrain, but also states that Red Bull Racing is still ahead.

Leclerc had a disappointing start to the season with two retirements in three races. In the only race the Monegasque did finish, he picked up six points, today Leclerc picked up seven points with his second place in the sprint. The Monegasque started the sprint from pole, but Sergio Perez passed him early on.

Difference with Bahrain

In Bahrain, Ferrari absolutely could not keep up with the Red Bulls, but in Azerbaijan, Leclerc managed to put his SF-23 on pole position twice. So, the Scuderia has made considerable progress, which Vasseur also noticed.

"The car was already improved in Melbourne, now the point is to put everything together and go for the points. The pace is there, we took pole position, we are far from the form of Bahrain," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italia.

Red Bull still faster

Even though Ferrari beat Red Bull in both qualifying sessions in Baku, the Ferrari team boss argues that Red Bull is still the faster team. This was confirmed by the sprint result, where Perez took victory by a pretty big margin. "Even though we were faster than the Red Bull in qualifying, they are still ahead. When Perez opened the DRS it looked like a rocket ship."